Flexible resourcing is becoming increasingly popular in the modern legal market and is process in which organisations offer lawyers as independent consultants or interim lawyers to clients needing legal assistance on an ad-hoc basis.
This is becoming an increasingly attractive prospect for businesses and lawyers alike and offers plenty of benefits for everyone involved. Firstly, for lawyers this model allows them to work in a way that suits their lifestyle and allows them to focus on their preferred area of law and work with a variety of clients.
Flexible resourcing is a process that is exactly what it says, flexible. It gives lawyers lots of opportunities and gives businesses a large selection of talent to choose from.
A key bonus here is the opportunity for companies to save money. There is less need for a constant in-house legal team which reduces overheads as those who are acting as consultants and are part of the flexible resourcing model usually bill per hour worked, per task or even work on a retainer basis, getting paid in advance depending on the nature of the work.
Many will find that they can find a pair of skilled lawyers to work with them at a much more appealing price than that of the hourly rate of one full-time partner or associate. The talent pool of which to select interim lawyers is rapidly expanding, making the choice even more appealing.
The success of flexible resourcing has not gone unnoticed by traditional law firms with several of the larger firms deciding to set up their own flexible resourcing operations. This allows these firms to utilise their resources and to help meet a demand for ad-hoc lawyers. Although things do get tricky when it comes to offering services to their competition or even the clients of their competition, so it pays to be cautious.
It is quite clear to see why flexible resourcing seems to attractive both to businesses and the lawyers themselves. There is a huge amount of freedom here which is beneficial for all of those involved and is allowing more opportunities for businesses to connect with a wide variety of expert lawyers. Whilst there will always be some downsides to contract work, in a modern era it certainly isn’t out of place in the legal market.